Module Eight...Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl by Eion Colfer.

Colfer, E.  (2001).  Artemis Fowl.  New York, NY:  Hyperion Books For Children.

Synopsis:
Artemis Fowl II is the son of an Irish crime lord.  Artemis has inherited the family gift of criminal activity.  Artemis has done research and found that fairies are in fact real and he has traveled to Vietnam to capture a fairy in order to find an ancient book that he can sell to help his family who have lost their fortune.  Slowly Artemis begins to realize his actions may be hurting others even though he is trying to save his family.  Can Artemis do the right thing at the same time he saves his family?

Reviews:

Fiction

Zaleski, J. (2001). ARTEMIS FOWL (Book Review). Publishers Weekly, 248(15), 75.  Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed March 10, 2013).
 

Colfer's (Benny and Omar) crime caper fantasy, the first in a series, starts off with a slam-bang premise: anti-hero Artemis Fowl is a boy-genius last in line of a legendary crime family teetering on the brink of destruction. With the assistance of his bodyguard, Butler, he masterminds his plan to regain the Fowls' former glory: capture a fairy and hold her ransom for the legendary fairy gold. However, his feisty mark, Holly, turns out to be a member of the "LEPrecon, an elite branch of the Lower Elements Police," so a wisecracking team of satyrs, trolls, dwarfs and fellow fairies set out to rescue her. Despite numerous clever gadgets and an innovative take on traditional fairy lore, the author falls short of the bar. The rapid-fire dialogue may work as a screenplay with the aid of visual effects (a film is due out from Talk/Miramax in 2002) but, on the page, it often falls flat. The narrative hops from character to character, so readers intrigued by Artemis's wily, autocratic personality have to kill a good deal of time with the relatively bland Holly and her cohorts, and the villain/hero anticlimactically achieves his final escape by popping some sleeping pills (it renders him invulnerable to the fairy time-stop). Technology buffs may appreciate the imaginative fairy-world inventions and action-lovers will get some kicks, but the series is no classic in the making. Ages 12-up. (May)

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Mitnick, E. (2001). Artemis Fowl (Book Review). School Library Journal, 47(5), 148.  Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed March 10, 2013).

Gr 5-8 --Twelve-year-old genius Artemis Fowl decides to reinvigorate his family fortunes by kidnapping a fairy and demanding its gold. Having obtained and decoded the Book, a tome containing all of the fairies' secrets, Artemis captures an elf named Holly Short and holds her captive at his family mansion in Ireland. However, he hasn't reckoned on the resources and cunning of the LEPrecon Unit, an elite branch of the fairy police force, whose members will stop at nothing to rescue Captain Short. It seems that the wicked ways of the Mud People (humans) have driven most of the magical creatures underground, where a gritty, urban fairy civilization is flourishing. The fairy characters are mouthy and eccentric, but Artemis is too stiff and enigmatic to be interesting; the story bogs down when the focus is on him. The combination of choppy sentences and ornate language will appeal to some readers, although not necessarily to Harry Potter fans; the emphasis here is more on action (some of it gory), technology, and deadpan humor than on magic, and only one character (Artemis) is a child.

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By Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library

Library Use:  The book (and all the books in the series) will be great in a display with other fantasy books like Harry Potter and others.  This book could also go along with the book I looked at last week as a sort of mystery book.

Library Use:  This would be great in a display of books on superheroes or supernatural creatures.